Arrangements described herein relate to Quality of Experience (QoE) for multimedia content communicated via a packet switched network.
Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet Protocol suite over a packet-switched network, such the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats. When delivering multimedia content (e.g., audio/video content) via IPTV, IPTV service providers typically measure and monitor the QoE of an IPTV stream as it travels through a network to a user's audio/video playback device. The QoE generally indicates the quality of multimedia content received for playback on client devices.
The QoE measurements typically include both intrusive measurements and non-intrusive measurements. Using an intrusive measurement, for example, video can be decoded as it traverses through the network and compared to a perfect reference video in order to detect a level of degradation in the received video. Using a non-intrusive measurement, for example, a mathematical algorithm can be applied to various parameters detected in a network to determine network metrics, such as jitter, delay and packet loss.